Most compliance teams don't have a screening problem. They have a noise problem. 

Watchlist screening returns a fixed set of results to every firm, so a lot of what lands in front of a reviewer was never relevant: a match in the wrong country, a common name that belongs to someone else, a minor news item with nothing to do with money laundering. 

Configurable watchlist screening changes that by letting a firm decide what its screening returns.

Why watchlist screening creates so much noise

Traditional watchlist screening treats every client and every firm the same way. It runs a broad set of checks at a broad match sensitivity, then returns whatever it finds. That design catches a lot, which sounds reassuring until you see what "a lot" means in practice.

A name search set to its widest setting will match people who simply share a name with your client. A politically exposed persons check that includes every tier will flag local councillors alongside heads of state. Adverse media set to every country and every risk type will surface old news, minor offences, and stories about a different person entirely. None of it is wrong, exactly. It is just not relevant to the client in front of you, and someone still has to read it and decide.

The result is volume. Time goes on clearing alerts that turn out to be irrelevant, and for a firm running ongoing monitoring across a large client base, that backlog is hard to keep on top of.

What configurable screening profiles change

Configurable watchlist screening lets a firm decide what its screening returns, instead of accepting a single default. An admin saves a screening profile, and that profile sets the rules for individual screening across the firm.

A profile controls:

• which categories run: sanctions, politically exposed persons, warnings, fitness and probity, and adverse media
• which PEP tiers are included, so you can keep senior public figures and drop level-four local officials if that fits your risk assessment
• which adverse media risk types are tracked, split into money-laundering-relevant types and other reputational types
• whether adverse media covers every country or only the client's country
• how strictly names match, from broad fuzzy matching that catches typos through to exact match only

Each setting maps to a decision your firm has probably already made in its risk assessment. The profile is where you write that decision down in a way the screening engine can act on.

See the impact before you save

Changing screening settings usually means guessing at the effect and waiting for the next batch of alerts to find out. Configurable profiles include a live preview that shows the impact of a change as you make it. Adjust a setting and the preview updates: it shows how many results would drop, which specific matches would be excluded, and why. You can tune a profile against a real example and see the trade-off before you commit to it.

A risk-based approach you can show

The Money Laundering Regulations expect firms to take a risk-based approach: assess the risk, then apply screening and due diligence in proportion to it. The problem with fixed screening is that it applies the same level of scrutiny to everyone, which is hard to square with a risk assessment that treats clients differently.

A configurable profile lets you operationalise the risk assessment you already have. The FCA's guidance, for example, treats UK domestic PEPs as a lower starting risk than foreign PEPs, so if your policy reflects that, you can set screening to match and keep a record of the decision. If a regulator asks why an alert did or did not fire, the answer is in the profile.

One caution worth stating plainly: narrowing what you screen for reduces noise, but it does not reduce your obligations. A firm is still responsible for covering the risks it is required to screen for, so a profile should reflect a considered risk assessment rather than a wish to see fewer alerts. The preview helps here, because it shows exactly what each change removes.

How to set up a screening profile

The settings live in your Legl account under Settings, then Monitoring, then Individuals monitoring. Only admin users can view or change them, and a saved profile applies as a firm-wide default for everyone.

Two things are worth knowing before you start. First, the profile applies to future screening only, both new onboarding and ongoing monitoring alerts; it does not change reports you have already run. Second, nothing changes until you activate a profile. If you keep the default, your screening behaves exactly as it does today. The moment you save a profile, the categories you have chosen apply across the firm.

Where to start

If your team spends time clearing screening results that were never relevant, a custom screening profile is the fastest way to cut that work without losing the coverage you need. Start by looking at the alerts you dismiss most often, then build a profile that reflects how your firm already assesses risk, and use the preview to check the effect before you save.

You can read the full guide to individual monitoring settings in the Legl Help Centre, or book a demo with the Legl team today.

Sources

• legislation.gov.uk — The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017
• Solicitors Regulation Authority — Your AML obligations
• Financial Conduct Authority — FG25/3: Treatment of politically exposed persons
• Financial Action Task Force — The FATF Recommendations (the risk-based approach)